Sally McMillan raises over $6,000 and is top fundraiser for the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s in Oakville. The walk totaled over $60,000!
Sally is a person living with dementia who not only raised the most money in 2019 in support of the Alzheimer Society in Halton, she also has the distinction of being top fundraiser overall for the Alzheimer Society of Brant, Haldimand Norfolk , Hamilton Halton. This year’s walks were held in Simcoe, Caledonia, Dunnville, Paris, Hamilton (McMaster University) and Stoney Creek as well as walks in local retirement homes; including Macassa Lodge in Hamilton and Sunrise Retirement Homes in Burlington and Oakville.
Sally accomplished this while also participating in a clinical trial at Sunnybrook Hospital.
Sally was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease at the early age of 60. Of the top ten leading causes of death in North America, Alzheimer’s and other dementias are the only diseases without a known cause, cure, or effective means of slowing progression.
Sally’s daughter, Abby and son-in-law Kevin caught wind of a ground-breaking clinical trial through Sunnybrook Hospital, focusing on Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative conditions. Over the past several months, Sally has undergone more tests than one could expect in a lifetime, to determine her eligibility. This past January she became the first patient in the world to undergo this phase of the trial.
The published study, “World first: Blood-brain barrier opened in multiple regions in a patient with Alzheimer’s disease” describes the surgeries performed and their goals for this trial.
Read more about Sally’s Clinical Trial here
When her daughter Abby asked why she was you doing this, Sally said “Somebody has to do this, if it doesn’t help me but it helps somebody else down the road, then that’s good”. Through all of the testing, there wasn’t a whisper of complaint. She is a warrior, and we are so proud of her.
For the third year in a row since her diagnosis, Sally and her family, including her husband Gus, accepted the challenge to participate in the IG Wealth Management Walk for Alzheimer’s. The ‘1st in the world’ warrior reached her goal in the fight against Alzheimer’s and other dementias and like her family all of us who support people living with dementia and their caregivers could not be more proud.
